Crono's Story by Traum

Chapter 25 Kennard

The sky was black, bordered with a dark green and blocking out any chance of sunlight spreading itself over us. The wish was being made, that much was certain, but the only part we didn't know was: Who was getting wished back?

When we'd flown off of Sky Palace, Kami had no idea who was to be wished back, and neither did the rest of us. Now, almost half an hour earlier, the wish had been made, and still we had no clue who'd be coming to aid us. Whoever it was, their help would be greatly appreciated.

So we stood there, just behind a small group of rocks and boulders, the lights of the Western Capitol glimmering dully in the darkness. Nikita was the only one out in the opening in front of the rocks, all alone in the giant open field Kami had designated as the drop point of the Caprians.

I could feel the spaceship of the Caprians grow nearer every second, and with every passing moment, the giddiness I felt in my stomach grew larger. I was never nervous going into a fight, I'd been in too many for that, but I always got butterflies in my stomach, there was just nothing I could do about that.

As we waited we all concentrated on pushing down our power levels, to such a level that the scouters the Caprians possessed wouldn't pick us up. We were doing a good job actually, if I hadn't been right there with everyone, I probably wouldn't have been able to pick us up. Still, the feeling grew.

"Nervous?" Arsenia asked.

I wasn't looking at him, so I didn't know he was speaking to me until I looked him in the eye "Uh, not really." I stammered out.

"Good. There's no place for that here, not now."

I nodded, and Gideon interrupted both of us. "Shaddup guys, they're here." Everyone turned to face him, and he pointed straight up towards the dark sky. We all looked up, and we all saw a bright yellow streak race across the sky, starting off in the south, and gradually moving towards our position. We all stood up, and turned to face the approaching menace. The feeling in my stomach was shattered, replaced with a feeling of anticipation and even a little pleasure.

Almost as soon as we'd turned to look out into the sky, the black wall that'd consumed the heavens faded away, the wish had been made. No sooner did the sky colour return to the normal blue though, then it was set aflame by the crashing spaceship. It was on us in less than a second, rocketing in a brilliant blaze of blue, red and orange flame.

The ship connected with the ground just a few hundred metres away from where Nikita was standing. The impact rocked the ground with such force I was almost blown off my feet by the impact. I managed to keep my footing throughout the crash, and protect my ears from the bang from the collision. A wave of dirt, grass and rock was hurled violently from the epicentre of the crash. Luckily the rocks we hid behind blocked out most of the debris, but dust had saturated the air, invading my eyes and causing them to water. I brought my hands up to protect my face, but was mainly unsuccessful. I wanted to just make an explosion of ki to destroy all the dust near me, but that would give away our position, so I restrained myself and took it like a man.

After a few seconds, the filth and various other items settled back to the ground, the shaking stopped, and we all fell dead silent. We all backed up against the nearest rock formation with the least possible sound emitted. No one dared move a muscle. We weren't really scared (I wasn't anyways), just excited by the task ahead of us. I guess that's why Kami and Krillin had chosen us; we weren't scared by new challenges, just thrilled by them.

Karnai was on my right, and Gideon on my left. Both of them seemed calm and relaxed, in fact Gideon even offered me a weak smile to lift my spirits. I tried returning the favour, but just couldn't manage it, too tense I guess. The only sound that could be heard was the light breathing of the two beings beside me.